Because our seemingly magical printer Epson WP-4515 is astonishingly economical when it comes to printing in colour, we still have generous amounts of cyan, magenta and yellow ink. But unexpectedly we are starting to run low on ordinary black – so in order to save black ink we’re treating you to a fabulously colourful editorial.

BY RANDOLF AND ROBIN

A PRESIDENTIAL MINDBY DANIEL STEINDLER

“I’ll just check my hair so it looks good for the camera” were the fi rst words of the presidential inter-view. Th en we continued:

How did the experience of EYP help you in your personal devel-opment?Very much, I’d say. I started at the age of 16 which I think is a cru-cial age for development. For about four years I haven’t done anything else and I can really see the changes on me, especially when working in teams, at school

or elsewhere. And, for instance, I would not be studying abroad [Scotland] without EYP since I got to know about the university from a Latvian EYPer.

What was the most memorable moment in your EYP life?Th ere would be so many of them. Many memorable moments hap-pened while I was an organizer for the Prague International Ses-sion. Once, while we were print-ing the newspaper, it was really cold and the printer was the only

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source of warmth in the room, so it was hugged by all of us.

Do you have a vision of how EYP could or should look like in the future?I think the core concept is pretty much okay now. Th e activities for alumni could be improved – we could have more trainings on more diff erent topics. Also it would be nice to bring in peo-ple from diff erent social back-grounds, as they try to do abroad. Of course it is diffi cult.

How do you picture yourself as an adult?I am an adult! (laughs) I would like to work-travel in the future, but I don’t think about it much. It is better to be surprised rather than disappointed that something did not happened as planned.

What invention do you consider the most helpful for human-kind?Apart from the obvious stuff like the wheel, I would say the print-ing press. It sort of started a dif-ferent way of spreading informa-tion, which changed the society a lot. Th e modern society would not have developed without it.

Is there a book that aff ected you?I don’t really have one that aff ected me in the long term, although

when I read a book I sort of live it - I tend to do bigger decisions and live faster.

Do you have any ideals? Dreams how the world could be better?I have the traditional ideals about democracy – I would like to see the quality of life rising around the globe, too. I do not believe that people could be happy in countries which are not free.

So you don’t believe that any-thing like utopia is possible? I don’t believe that we could invent anything better than democracy. We could certainly change the democratic system, make it more accessible and faster.

Is there anything that you would consider your “life philosophy”?I think that one of the most impor-tant parts of philosophy for real life is the ethics. But I don’t think I am really consistent in it myself – sometimes I tend to think like an utilitarian – not that I would be very proud of it – sometimes more like a stoic.

Do you have a role-model?I do envy some people’s qualities, but I am not really trying to be like them. A person that interests me is Charlie Chaplin and his life story. I cannot think of any politi-cian that I would admire…

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BY LIA PACHLER

CONFESSIONS OF A STRESSED OUT ORGA

Dear diary,You can’t imagine all that hap-pened to me today! It was just another day with a smooth wake-up call. Just to clear that up, the whole Orga team is trying so hard to make it as nice and gentle as possible, however, so many of them don’t even say “Good morn-ing” when they open the door. No one realises just how much ear-lier I have to get up than they do, because it takes you quite a lot of time to wake up one hundred people.Th is exhausting activity was fol-

lowed by an even more exhaust-ing one: Assuring the transfer to the next venue. First of all, I always have to wait ages until the group is complete, because there’s always someone missing or going back to the room to get some for-gotten stuff . Aft er a while I fi gured out that we were quite late, so I told them to hurry up, but no one actually moved any faster! Th at’s the reason why we missed the bus and had to wait 20 minutes in the cold to get on the next one. Guess who was blamed for that incident? Of course us, the organizers. Can

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you imagine what it feels like to overhear people saying ‘Th e orga-nizers messed it up again’?Sitting in the bus, everyone was warming up and relaxing a bit, when all of a sudden I panicked because some delegates were missing. I tried not to keep calm, although it was quite a challenge. Pretending as if all was well, I accompanied the other part of them to the venue and got on the next bus to go directly back to the hotel. Unfortunately, the missing delegates were not waiting at the bus station so I had to walk around for some time to fi nd them.In the face of these complications, I returned to the venue more than

an hour later than I was sup-posed to. It wouldn’t have been that much of a problem, if I hadn’t been in charge of preparing the coff ee break. Th e annoyance of the chairs and delegates was pal-pable. Guess what was on every-one’s lips... Right, “Th e organizers messed it up again”.Th at was a tough day so far. Write again tomorrow, if I’ll even have time to...

Author’s note: All of the situations depicted above are fi ctitious and subject to the author’s imagination and creativity, resulting from the infl uence of her own experience as an organizer.

Since it is incredibly hard to properly report on the work of the Organizers’ team in a newspaper due to their diverse tasks and busy schedule, we want to use this space to squeeze in at least a short declaration of our appreciation. Luckily for us, our Orgas are never to be seen showing their sometime frustration as openly as the fi ctional one from the above article. Rather, when it counts, they always appear as the embodiment of smiles and thoughtfulness. As we have been working in seclusion for most of the session, unlike other participants, we have gotten used to the Orgas’ absence – and now appreciate it appropriately when they are around to assist us.

Veronika DrzkováDorota ŠuráňováMartin VokálekDana KlímováZuzana HolakovskáMartina Konečná

Our sincere thanks for everything they have done for us and all the other par-ticipants of this session go to:

Robin SemrádDavid RadostaLucie LotkováNatálie DostálováKlára Scholleová

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BY JIŘÍ POUR

ATOMKRAFT?JA, BITTE!

Nuclear power is by far the most eco-friendly source of energy. It does not produce any carbon diox-ide (CO2) compared to extremely polluting coal plants. Th e abo-lition of nuclear energy in Ger-many is already causing the come-back of coal plants. Each nuclear plant replaced by coal plants means an extra 11 million tons of CO2 emissions per year. Of course we have the “renewable energy sources”. But are they really so ecological? Let us examine solar plants for example. Huge govern-mental subsidies started a boom of these in the Czech Republic. And the result? Not only are enor-mous solar fi elds a scar on the face of our landscape but they also dis-turb natural biotopes and create a huge pile of toxic and carcino-genic waste that we will eventually have to deal with. Just the process of making one ton of poly-silicon, a chief component of solar cells, generates four tons of toxic silicon tetrachloride. In Japan, concern-ing the potential of wind power to replace nuclear energy, one con-cluded that it would require wind mills occupying 1.3 billion acres,

more than 50% of the country’s total land mass. I can already hear readers saying, “Yeah, but what about the secu-rity?” Th ere is a simple answer. Onagawa, a nuclear plant situated on the coast some 130 kilometers from Fukushima. Not only did it withstand both the earthquake and tsunami, it became a shelter for many locals during the disas-ter. Onagawa belongs to a younger generation of nuclear plants than Fukushima. So there is a way to secure them even against extreme and unprecedented catastrophes.It is a common human tendency to overreact facing sudden dra-mas. We do not have to look far for examples: Swine Flu, Bird Flu, etc. (the “regular” fl u kills more people every year than Swine or Bird Flu ever did). We have a hor-ror of dying in a plane crash, but not of driving to the airport along far more dangerous roads...So should we invest in develop-ment or fear? Th e future of our energy sources has to be decided according to objective facts and not hotheaded populist move-ments.

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BY LYUBOV DVORETSKAYA

THE TIME BOMB IS SET AND THE CLOCK IS TICKING…

Th e argument around nuclear power usage has been a perma-nent issue since the infamous Chernobyl catastrophe, and now, aft er the Fukushima incident, it is on the agenda like never before. Th e question remains: How many more times do people need to suf-fer through nuclear disasters like these before it is understood that alternatives are necessary? Considering the impact and importance of nuclear power usage in the current world econ-omy, it is clearly impossible to completely eliminate it all at once, but the goal has to remain clear – slowly but surely replacing nuclear energy with safer and less scarce energy sources. Th e reasons for such extreme measures should be justifi ed not only with the fear of repeating the horrible failures of the past, but with the care for the future of our children, our planet and our-selves. Th e main problem with nuclear power is radioactive waste dis-posal. And it still remains unre-solved - with, to be honest, no real prospect of a solution in the

near future. Th e laws of chemistry are not so easily omitted. Nuclear waste is extremely dangerous and has to be securely disposed of and carefully looked aft er for several thousand years. Storage facili-ties for radioactive waste are not suffi cient to store all of it. Areas around the radioactive waste stor-age become deserted territories, harmful to nature and hazardous for people. Does anyone want to face the situation of literally living at the nuclear dump? Th e comfort that nuclear plants off er us a stable supply of energy is a convenient illusion, as uranium, the main “fuel” for nuclear energy, is actually scarce, with reserves estimated to last only for the next 60 years. So it is obviously not the way to go in the long-term future. A key to resolving the nuclear power problem is not so com-plicated – just making one step at a time to fi nance and develop “green” energy sources and build-ing an eco-friendly environment. We do have those 60 years of ura-nium supply to get there. Let us use them wisely!

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BY DANIEL STEINDLER

THE MEN WHO SOLD THE WORLDWe do not need any dreamed-up conspiracy theories anymore to try and explain the function of today’s global economy. Suffi cient is the conclusion of a Swiss scien-tifi c study from the ETH Zurich, which focused on the world’s con-centration of wealth. Th e results of the “Th e Network of Global Corporate Control” study clearly show that only a very small num-ber of all global corporations (altogether 1300 of them) control 80 percent of all economic worth in the world. Th ese corporations also control each other mutu-ally. Each of them is connected to 20 others on average. World-wide only fi ve of the 50 largest super-corporations are not from the fi nancial sector. Among these top-placed companies are Bar-clays Bank, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., UBS and Deutsche Bank. As one of the authors of the study, Stefano Battiston, points out, the study is not trying to show that this “heart” of the business world works together using unfair tactics. It only warns about the possible handicap it may cause to the economy’s sta-bility and competition possibili-

ties. Th e question of whether the political sphere can eff ectively take infl uence on this complex system remains. However, accord-ing to macroeconomic expert John Driffi ll the network of super-corporations is probably not a result of any conspiracy, because it is simply too vast to accept and uphold any secret contracts. Nonetheless, the study showed that globally the top players are capable of using their control-ling power in both formal (vot-ing rights, advisory board repre-sentatives) and informal methods when it comes to preventing poli-ticians from limiting their power. Th ough it seems that this concentration of power and global connection may be economically friendlier by dividing the poten-tial risks, it makes the system much more vulnerable in “dark economic times” as the compa-nies start to collapse in a domino-eff ect fashion. As the global bonds become clearer to us, we will be able to cope with their impacts more eff ectively, for example by setting new global anti-monopo-listic laws or special taxes for “too connected” companies.

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BY NELA GÁBRIŠOVÁ CROSSWORDWhat is it? It contains both wood and ink; it’s colourful and simply awesome.

1. Th e thing you should not miss to read at the session.2. Th e part of the session programme aimed at getting to know others.3. Surname of a Greek chairperson.4. Th e 2011 was offi cially declared the Year of …5. Skills and knowledge you gain throughout your life.6. Using this offi cial language of the EYP in GA is commonly frowned upon.7. Group of people you discuss your topic with.8. Offi cial document that contains the output of your discussions.9. A very famous EYP game. 10. Th e offi cial mascot of the Orga team.11. Nickname of one of the editors.12. Name of the local gymnasium. 13. Th e EYP event you are taking part in right now.

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BY ANNA KAMPFMANN

GENERAL ASSEMBLYMISSION IMPOSSIBLE?“I declare the General Assembly as offi cially opened…”Picture yourself in the city hall of Pardubice and hearing those words from the President. It will fi nally get serious at what may be your fi rst EYP session – it is up to you to follow through with this personal challenge you have begun in committee work. End this unforgettable experience on a high note by passing your resolu-

tion. For that, however, it is cru-cial you should not panic but stay calm instead! Mission Impossible? No!

DRESS UP!Sneakers, hoodies and sweatpants have to stay in your bags – it is about time to put on your suits, ties and dresses! Why not try to enjoy the new and unusual out-fi t? Use this unique opportunity and don’t worry about the inches of your high-heels or the knot of your tie…

NEMLUVTE RODNOU ŘEČÍ!As you already know, the offi cial language is English, because of that we advise you to stick to it and not to switch to your mother tongue. With the right mindset, you will get the feel for it quickly and it won’t seem diffi cult or awk-ward anymore. And, for Christ’s sake, do not use swearwords but make sure to choose an appropri-ate vocabulary!

WAKE-UP CALL!You feel tired? You did not get any

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HIGH HEELS

ON!BY ANA MARIA CROITORU

“High heels were invented by a woman who had been kissed on the forehead.”- Christopher Morley

Th ere is no recipe with the ingredients that results in a “red carpet”-worthy walk in high heels. It is not the height of the stilettos that makes the lady look charming but the balance between the body language and the proper attitude. If you just left the Converse comfort zone, start slowly from 1 to 2 inches and, as prac-tice makes perfect, in time go higher and higher.Keep your legs straight while you walk. Lead with your hips rather than by bending your legs. Th is will help you keep your body lined up and your weight evenly on each shoe while looking both classy and sensual.Try to take small and sure steps in order to look confi dent and show that you are proud of your shoes.Be the one to wear your shoes don’t let yourself be carried by them!

sleep at all? Just like circles and the Zulu Dance, a constant shortage of rest and sleep is part of every single EYP session. Th ere are sev-eral medicines for the treatment of the widespread symptoms: Cof-fee, energy drinks, fresh air, fruits and chocolate.

WE, THE COMMITTEE.During the last couple of days you have talked to people that you did not know before, you have made new friends – do not forget about that even under stressful circum-stances. GA is not about compe-tition but about supporting each other: Make sure that your fellow delegate is able to follow the dis-cussion; work together, work as a team!

TAKE PART, PARTICIPATE!However, it is the most impor-tant thing as a delegate to enjoy the whole procedure of General Assembly. Accept the challenge and do not be afraid of mistakes, as it is always the best way to learn. Delivering a speech, read-ing out the operative clauses, crit-icising during the open debate – there are plenty of possibilities for each and every one of you to speak up and have your say.

Challenge accepted! Mission accomplished?

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EYPBAYBY ANA MARIA CROITORU

Have you ever been to a session of EYP and, when arriving at home, realised that there was something missing from your luggage? Or that you found an unpaired shoe or XXL-sized jeans in your suit-case that didn’t belong to you? Or that the camera you returned home with is the same model but it isn’t yours? Or if you came across any other strange item that wasn’t supposed to be in your lug-gage - then you have experienced something typical for EYP.One day there was an EYPer who

realised that aft er every session his luggage’s content was getting smaller and smaller. Taking into account the fact that he was not the only EYPer with this prob-lem aft er attending international EYP sessions, he decided to open a page on Facebook that would be able to more or less solve the problem of the incomplete lug-gage. Even if the name of the group came from the idea of eBay, the purpose of eypBay is not “buy and sell” but more like “lost and

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1. NEWSPAPER

2. TEAMBUILDING

3. PANAGIOTAROPOULOU

4. VOLUNTEERING

5. EXPERIENCE

6. FRENCH

7. COMMITTEE

8. RESOLUTION

9. ZULU DANCE

10. GINGERBREAD

11. RANDY

12. DAŠICKÁ

13. CZECH FORUM

found”. As it’s a closed group, you have to get invited by a person that is already a member. Th en you are free to post about your missing things or the random items you found among your lug-gage on the group wall. Th e main idea is to keep your posts relevant only to lost items, because as the founder of the group would have said, everyone lost “time, money, dignity and energy, but if you miss them that much you can quit EYP”. To make the procedure effi -cient, your post is to include the session you attended, the date and the things you found or lost dur-ing the event. Aft er it is published all you have to do is to wait for

other EYPers to read it, in order to see if someone is by any chance aware of your missing or found stuff . Th e success rate of the group is surprisingly high: Many people who inquired in the group got a reply from either an organiser or other EYPer who had informa-tion on the subject. Even if no one knows anything about the things you lost or found you shouldn’t get too upset; at least you got a second chance to look for things that were once yours – and it’s an excuse to get in touch again with the people you attended a prob-ably crazy and very memorable session with.

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8th Czech Forum Pardubice EYP Czech Republic 24.-27.11.2011 Záštitu převzali:

Miroslava Němcová, předsedkyně Poslanecké sněmovny Parlamentu ČR Mgr. Jindřich Tauber, náměstek primátorky statutárního města Pardubic Ing. Jana Pernicová, členka Rady Pardubického kraje